What does「担がれ引けなかった」mean in this paragraph?

Question

From Persona 5:

かつては、班目も携わっていた組織だよ。あいつの黒い噂は業界でも有名だった。まさか自白なんて、誰も思っていなかったよ。だがね、彼によって様々な人間が 恩恵を受けてきたのも事実だ。彼自身、方々から担がれ引けなかったのだろう。

班目is a character who used to work at a certain company before becoming a painter. A representative from that company 川鍋, says the above paragraph about 班目.

I am having trouble understanding the last line, 「彼自身、方々から担がれ引けなかったのだろう」. In the english version of the game, that line is 'I suppose its's likely he was deceiving us that whole time...'

What does 「担がれ引けなかった」mean? I can't connect the dots between the english and japanese versions of this line.

Answer 1

The basic meaning of 担ぐ is "to carry", but it has a derivative meaning of "to nominate/support someone as the boss (of their own organization)". It sometimes implies that no one wants to be the boss, or that such a person is an incompetent person who was deliberatively promoted to the position of the boss. There is an idiom 神輿を担ぐ, which is closely related to this.

This 引く is "to back out" or "to quit".

Therefore, "方々から担がれ引けなかった" means that he was urged by many to take on the role of boss, and he couldn't refuse or back out. In addition, it's possible that he became the boss not because of his true capabilities or respect.